Local Catholics celebrate centuries-old tradition Saturday

NORWICH – St. Bartholomew has been celebrated for a long time – long before a catholic church bearing his name was founded in Norwich in the 1920s.

Legend has it that he was martyred in the 1st century in Armenia while there as a missionary. His remains were then said to have washed ashore onto a small island called Lipari, near Sicily. A religious hero – believed to be a source of protection and miracles – in Lipari thereafter, the tradition of honoring St. Bart was carried to Norwich when natives of the island first immigrated here at the turn of the 20th century.